Random Aspagarus

Here it is again!!! Last year I found them randomly popping out of my garden! It's not the most ideal gardening spot for me especially since it's coming out from the edge of the fence, almost directly alongside the border rocks. I'm hoping to dig it up and replant it but two problems so far:

a.) When is a good time to dig up and transplant asparagus?

b.) I don't know where I want them to grow year after year. I have such limited space...

I'll find space for them though. It's exciting that I got a free crop! If only I had a whole garden just magically start popping up from my backyard... ahhh, how nice that would be :)

I Think I Found My Lettcuce

 

 

top left: lettuce(?)

top right: carrot

bottom left: radish

bottom right: corn

I think I have finally found my lettuce. I was letting ALL the weeds grow in my lettuce/spinach bed because I just couldn't figure out what was lettuce and what was weed. Since I sowed the seeds in mid-April, I thought I had accidentally pulled up all the lettuce in the beginning but maybe they just take a while to sprout. I've been finding really light colored leaves where the lettuce are expected to be, which aren't like the weeds that I've been seeing all over my garden. I'm going to let them grow with my fingers crossed!

My carrots are finally looking like carrots too. My garden grows so slow compared to all the gardens of the bloggers in the east coast. I'm sure they started their seeds much earlier than I did so I know I shouldn't be discouraged but... I'm just worried that they're not gonna grow fast enough to become a successful harvest! :( Maybe I'm just impatient.

I Finally Got My Chickens!!! :D

I drove down with my boyfriend all the way to Orting to pick up my new babies!!! :)

The guy at the farm was really really nice and I chose a Buff Orpington (5 weeks old) and a Black Australorp(4 weeks old). They're still pretty young but they're big enough that they'll be perfectly fine outside. Perfect! I wanted 3 chickens though but I couldn't decide on the last one so I let my boyfriend choose. He picked out a Barred Plymouth Rock (8 weeks old). She's a tad bigger than the other two but that means she'll lay eggs sooner too! YAY.

We've been naming all our pets after the aviation alphabet (Our lizard is Zulu, my rabbit was Charlie, and we used to have a betta named Alpha). So our newcomers are named Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot. Here they are:


left: Echo(Plymouth rock) with Foxtrot(Orpington)
right: My baby Delta(Australorp)

My boyfriend has been AWESOME this week and actually built their pen for me! He used mostly 2x4's with a few 2x2's. Most of the wood was lying around in our garage so we only spent about $5 for a little extra wood and $40 for the hardware mesh. I was gonna cheap out and buy the chicken wire which was $27 and you get twice as much of it, but my boyfriend insisted hardware mesh would be sturdier, keep more pests out and overall look nicer.

I'm glad he chose it though cuz after he finished it, it really does look sturdy and nice :) We bought exterior paint from the clearance rack at Lowe's so we got half a can for $1, which was more than enough. We probably have enough paint leftover to paint their coop when we make it.

top left: the temporary cage they stayed in for 2 days

top right: before; the far back wall of our backyard

bottom left: after; we still need to clean up the area around it

bottom right: I think my babies are enjoying the new space

For $46 we built a 3'x7'x3' pen. It ended up being a bit too tall that I couldn't climb in (we're going to put hinged doors on the top) so we decided to bury it down a little. It's perfect now!

I added in a perch made from a wooden rod that was lying around and 2 of the stakes I pulled out from the side of the street haha. The hens are still kinda clumsy on it but it's adorable to watch them try to balance and walk on them.

I wanted to post up pictures sooner but I have literally been GLUED to them since I got them :D I can't wait til they start laying eggs! I need to get started on their chicken coop now!

First Harvest!!!!!

My very firs harvest was baby spinach! :D They've been getting attacked by leaf miners though :( Not too big of a damage but there were a lot of teeny tiny eggs under a lot of the leaves. I've been going out every night to scrape off the eggs to hopefully decrease the damage. I never see the suckers though. I just find their eggs. Grrr...

My friend's dad let me take home one of their chicken's freshly laid egg to try. I've never had a "fresh" egg like this before so I didn't really know what to expect...

My breakfast. Salt and peppered pan-fried egg, spinach with olive oil, pepper and feta cheese.

Here was my breakfast. Very small and very simple but VERY satisfying :D I've never had such a delicious and flavorful meal!!! I think it also helps that I'm finally eating my spinach I've tended to for over a month. Soooo good. And the egg? Unbelievable. The whole egg was so thick and the yolk had so much more flavor than the store bought ones do.

I can't wait to get my own chickens!! I've been doing tons of research and my boyfriend and I are finally starting on making the chicken coop. I've narrowed down my choices to an Orpington, an Australorp, or a Wyandotte. Maybe I'll just get one of each. I think I only want 2 though. We'll see what happens. :)